Heinous Trump shooting reflects gun violence that permeates America's fabric
Judson L. Jeffries is a professor of African American and African Studies at Ohio State University and a regular contributor to the Columbus Dispatch.
The attempt on Donald Trump’s life is despicable, yet unfortunately not without precedent. Since Dwight D. Eisenhower left office, presidents John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and presidential candidate George Wallace have all been the subjects of an assassination plot.
The shooting of Trump is reflective of the violence that is woven into the fabric of America’s brand of democracy.
Regardless of one's political affiliation and ideological leanings the idea that we as Americans are incapable of disagreeing without being disagreeable is disappointing yet becoming more and more commonplace.
The heinous action taken on the part of this lost soul is to some degree indicative of how far America has fallen as a civilized nation and a beacon of world democracy.
Will America ever get serious gun control laws?
I should note that what this near tragedy will undoubtedly do is prompt many to revisit a much-needed conversation about gun control, but a conversation that needs to go beyond gun control.
What to know about the AR-15, the style of gun used in Trump assassination attempt
No doubt, in the coming days the media will bombard the American public with data involving gun violence, ranging from the number of people killed daily, to the number of gun-related deaths annually here in America.
Still, there is no indication that America is any closer to joining the rest of the free world and imposing stringent gun control laws for the purpose of reducing violent crime. An attempt on a presidential candidate’s life or anyone’s life for that matter no matter how repugnant or controversial that person’s views are perceived to be is reprehensible.
Gun violence permeates our society
However, to be clear, the matter of gun violence transcends the issue of gun control. I, like many people, have argued, when the issue of gun control takes center stage, what happens is that we inadvertently move away from the matters that warrant our undivided attention.
The stark reality is that there are few areas of American popular culture that gun violence does not permeate.
For many Americans, gun violence is their preferred mode of media entertainment whether it appears on television, the silver screen or the various other platforms that vie for our attention daily on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. There is something about violence, gun violence particularly that many Americans find extremely attractive, if not downright addictive.
The entertainment industry has so normalized gun violence that places and institutions that were once considered safe spaces by those like me who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s such as schools, houses of worship, shopping centers, malls, and movie theaters have become sites of carnage and mayhem.
There are numerous factors including the profitability by corporate interests and the decline in morals and values that have birthed, promoted and sustained this culture of violence in which we live that prompts the seemingly intolerant among us to do things that many rationally-minded people would consider unfathomable.
Until we are willing to identify and address those things then what occurred on Saturday may be a harbinger of things to come rather than a societal anomaly.
Judson L. Jeffries is a professor of African American and African Studies at Ohio State University and a regular contributor to the Columbus Dispatch.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Trump near-assassination shows how far US has fallen, need for gun laws
